scholarly journals Regime-sanctioned oligarchs

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-156
Author(s):  
Wojciech Konończuk
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Front Seat ◽  
Big Business ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Starting Position ◽  
Economic Decisions

No oligarchic system, similar to those in Ukraine or Russia, developed in Belarus after 1991, but the formation of a group of prominent regime-linked businessmen has accelerated in recent years. They owe their influence to informal concessions from the regime to do business in selected sectors of the economy. They often do not take over state property but act as intermediaries, earning a hefty commission for doing so. They also operate in the criminal sphere, primarily involving the large-scale smuggling of goods into Russia and the European Union. This article aims to show the evolution and specifics of big business in Belarus. The growing capital potential of big Belarusian businessmen, estimated at a dozen or so, and their rising influence on the economic decisions made by the authorities while maintaining total political loyalty, make it justified to call at least some of them oligarchs. The system emerging in Belarus bears certain similarities to some post-Soviet oligarchic systems while having its own distinctive features. The accumulated capital and contacts give at least some of the emerging Belarusian oligarchs a good starting position for taking a front seat in a possible future political transformation, should the conditions arise for that to begin.

scholarly journals Characteristics of Models of Farms in the European Union

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4772
Author(s):  
Hanna Klikocka ◽  
Aneta Zakrzewska ◽  
Piotr Chojnacki
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Family Farms ◽  
Agricultural Income ◽  
Commercial Farms ◽  
Standard Output ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Eu

The article describes and sets the definition of different farm models under the categories of being family, small, and large-scale commercial farms. The distinction was based on the structure of the workforce and the relationship between agricultural income and the minimum wage. Family farms were dominated by the farming family providing the labour and their income per capita exceeded the net minimum wage in the country. The larger commercial farms feature a predominance of hired labour. Based on surveys, it was found that in 2016 in the EU-28 there were 10,467,000 farms (EU-13—57.3%, EU-15—42.7%). They carried out agricultural activities on an area of 173,338,000 ha (EU-13—28.5%, EU-15—71.5%). Countries of the EU-28 generated a standard output (SO) amounting to EUR 364,118,827,100 (EU-13—17.2% and EU-15—82.8%). After the delimitation, it was shown that small farming (70.8%) was the predominant form of management in the European Union (EU-13—88.2% and EU-15—79.8%) compared to family farming (18.4%) (EU-13—10.5% and EU-15—29%). In most EU countries the largest share of land resources pertains to small farms (35.6%) and family farms (38.6%) (UAA—utilised agricultural area of farms).

scholarly journals La peculiare costituzione dell'Unione Europea

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Erik Fossum ◽  
Agustin José Menendez
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
Institutional Structure ◽  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Distinctive Features

A unique political animal, the European Union has given rise to important constitutional conundrums and paradoxes that John Erik Fossum and Agustín José Menéndez explore in detail in this book. The authors consider the process of forging the EU's constitution and the set of fundamental norms that define the institutional structure, the decision-making procedures, and the foundations of the Union's democratic legitimacy. Their analysis illuminates the distinctive features of the EU's pluralist constitutional construct but also the interesting parallels to the Canadian constitutional experience and provides the tools to understand the Union's development, especially during the Laeken (2001–2005) and Lisbon (2007–2009) processes of constitutional reform.

Internationalization of Polish Higher Education within Knowledge Transfer and Innovation

2015 ◽  
pp. 247-271
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Barcik ◽  
Piotr Dziwiński
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
European Union ◽  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Internationalization Of Higher Education ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Polish Higher Education ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Cross Border Cooperation

Internationalization of higher education in Poland is a relatively new subject which has been gradually gaining its importance. The economic and political transformation of Poland opened new opportunities for Polish universities. The accession to the European Union enabled the educational and research units to apply for European funds in this respect. Despite numerous difficulties, the universities reform their strategies and search for new solutions to increase the level of internationalization and thus their competitiveness. These actions are necessary and crucial for their further development. The chapter describes general issues of internationalization of Polish higher education and shows that the level of internationalization may be achieved successfully by various forms of cross-border cooperation. Polish-Czech cooperation in the field of knowledge transfer and innovation carried out by two partner universities located in the Polish – Czech borderland is a case study illustrating this process.

Discourse and Democracy

2020 ◽  
pp. 233-261
Author(s):  
Chris Heffer
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Common Theme ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Voter Fraud

This chapter summarizes the main analytical moves in the TRUST heuristic for analyzing untruthfulness. It then applies the heuristic to three short texts that have been widely called out as lies: Trump’s tweet about large-scale voter fraud just before the 2016 presidential elections; the “Brexit Battle Bus” claim that the United Kingdom sent £350 million per week to the European Union; and Tony Blair’s 2002 statement to Parliament about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction. The cases share a common theme: the capacity of untruthful public discourse to undermine democratic legitimacy by, respectively, questioning the integrity of electoral procedures, harming the capacity of voters to make a rational choice, and undermining faith in the rational and responsible deliberation of one’s leaders. The chapter troubles the simple attribution of lying in these cases and shows how a TRUST analysis can lead to a deeper understanding of the types and ethical value of untruthfulness.

Does Brexit mean the end for Critical Management Studies in Britain?

Organization ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 662-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Grey
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Big Business ◽  
Speaking Out ◽  
Critical Management ◽  
Critical Management Studies

My argument in the Speaking Out essay is, first, that in the European Union Referendum vote, Critical Management Studies found itself on the same, anti-Brexit, side as big business and mainstream management studies, making it hard to sustain itself as something separate from these. Second, I argue that this reflects a wider set of issues about the liberal-left and the European Union, which, third, means that British Critical Management Studies now finds itself located within what is regarded on the pro-Brexit side as ‘the establishment elite’, and that to work effectively against Brexit, British Critical Management Studies will need to work as part of that establishment elite. My conclusion is that this may mark the end of British Critical Management Studies as it has hitherto existed.

scholarly journals Upsetting the agenda: the clout of external focusing events in the European Council

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petya Alexandrova
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
European Council ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Focusing Events ◽  
Combining Data

AbstractFocusing events are sudden, striking large-scale occurrences that attract political attention. However, not all potential focusing events appear on the agenda. Combining data from multiple sources, this study conducts an analysis of the determinants of prioritisation of external focusing events in the European Council over a period longer than two decades. The results demonstrate that decisions regarding the placement of crises on the agenda are underscored by exogenous (humanitarian) and endogenous (geopolitical interest) considerations. Those events with a higher likelihood of agenda access include manmade incidents (versus natural disasters), events with larger death tolls and crises in the neighbourhood. Stronger competition between potential focusing events across time and space reduces the chances of access. The level of attention each event receives depends on purely strategic interests. Focusing events in neighbouring countries gain a higher portion of attention, as do occurrences in states having a larger trade exchange with the European Union.

scholarly journals Sharing Pandemic Vaccination Certificates through Blockchain: Case Study and Performance Evaluation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
José L. Hernández-Ramos ◽  
Georgios Karopoulos ◽  
Dimitris Geneiatakis ◽  
Tania Martin ◽  
Georgios Kambourakis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Use Case ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Satisfactory Performance ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Network Response Time

During 2021, different worldwide initiatives have been established for the development of digital vaccination certificates to alleviate the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic to vaccinated individuals. Although diverse technologies can be considered for the deployment of such certificates, the use of blockchain has been suggested as a promising approach due to its decentralization and transparency features. However, the proposed solutions often lack realistic experimental evaluation that could help to determine possible practical challenges for the deployment of a blockchain platform for this purpose. To fill this gap, this work introduces a scalable, blockchain-based platform for the secure sharing of COVID-19 or other disease vaccination certificates. As an indicative use case, we emulate a large-scale deployment by considering the countries of the European Union. The platform is evaluated through extensive experiments measuring computing resource usage, network response time, and bandwidth. Based on the results, the proposed scheme shows satisfactory performance across all major evaluation criteria, suggesting that it can set the pace for real implementations. Vis-à-vis the related work, the proposed platform is novel, especially through the prism of a large-scale, full-fledged implementation and its assessment.

scholarly journals Protection of Individuals in the light of EU Regulation 2016/679 on the Protection of Natural Persons with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the Free Movement of such Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-74
Author(s):  
Mirosław Tokarski
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Free Movement ◽  
Legal Regulations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Eu Regulation

The process of establishing normative acts in the European Union does not  occur out of nowhere, but in the context of specific social needs. That was the case of the genesis of establishing legal regulations regarding the protection of personal data in the European Union. Socio-economic integration, which resulted from the functioning of internal market in the European Union, has led to a significant increase in cross-border transfers of personal data. It led to situation in which various economic operators or state institutions of the Member States have increasingly processed the personal data of the EU citizens. Within time, these data have become an equally valuable commodity - not to say even more valuable – compared to goods and services (Costa-Cabral, and Lynskey Orla, 2017, p. 11). Making use of personal data on a large scale especially by public and private entities, associations and companies over time has posed a threat to the security of personal data. This has made it necessary to introduce legal protection measures for personal data in the European Union that would eliminate the negative effects of any form of personal data processing. The purpose of this article is to evaluate legal regulations regarding legislative protection of personal data in the European Union against the background of EU Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and the Council with respect to the protection of individuals due to processing personal data, its free movement and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (hereinafter referred to as Regulation 2016/679). Due to initially adopted purpose of the considerations there arose a problem which was formulated in the form of a question: Do the legal measures introduced by the Regulation constitute an effective tool for the protection of personal data in the event of a violation of the law by personal data administrators and entities while processing such data? The presented purpose of the considerations and the research problem determined the order of the analysis.

scholarly journals How Far Does the European Union Reach? Foreign Land Acquisitions and the Boundaries of Political Communities

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torsten Menge
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Land Acquisitions ◽  
The People ◽  
Global Power ◽  
Foreign Land ◽  
Political Philosopher ◽  
Political Communities

The recent global surge in large-scale foreign land acquisitions marks a radical transformation of the global economic and political landscape. Since land that attracts capital often becomes the site of expulsions and displacement, it also leads to new forms of migration. In this paper, I explore this connection from the perspective of a political philosopher. I argue that changes in global land governance unsettle the congruence of political community and bounded territory that we often take for granted. As a case study, I discuss the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive as a significant driver of foreign land acquisitions. Using its global power, the European Union (EU) is effectively governing land far outside of its international borders and with it the people who live on this land or are expelled from it. As a result, EU citizens ought to consider such people fellow members of their political community. This has implications for normative debates about immigration and, in particular, for arguments that appeal to collective self-determination to justify a right of political communities to exclude newcomers. The political community to which EU citizens belong reaches far beyond the EU’s official borders.

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